GARFIELD LASHES OUT ON THE LEOPARDS

LIBERTY OH- The stars align once again for the Garfield Lady G-Men as they came into Liberty and took a commanding victory over the Lady Leopards. Garfield coming into this game had not surrendered a set in MVAC Grey play and that would not change here as they took down Liberty in just 3 sets and continued their great play on the season.

In set one of the night Garfield got out to a 4-0 start to the game and clung on to that lead until Liberty pushed back and tied things at 13 apiece. From there Garfield won the next point and this brought up their ace leader in Montana McGranahan to serve the ball. She was excellent as she collected point after point forcing Liberty to burn two timeouts enroute to a 23-13 lead before Garfield finally surrendered a point to the Leopards. A couple of points later and the Lady G-Men took home set one of the night 25-13.

Liberty would not allow another McGranahan serving run on the night but set two still belonged to Garfield as their height at the net proved to much for Liberty to handle. McGranahan, Gabby Barnard, Mandy Cardinal, and Hannah Kernig played excellent all night long and set two really showcased their talents as they continued to halt every momentum play by Liberty with a massive spike at the net. Lexi Muck did her best trying to block at the net, but with so much skill all around on the front line of Garfield she couldn’t be everywhere at once. Liberty fought hard in set two and some great plays were made from Mia Parker, Lexi Muck, Demi Watson, and Brianna Derenzis but a few mishaps stalled their run as they fell in set two 25-18.

Set three was a competitive battle as Liberty was showing their pride after starting the season with a perfect record at home and not wanting to give in to Garfield’s size mismatch. They fought hard and neither team ever had a run of more then four consecutive points and even these small runs were immediately answered by their opponent. Lexi Muck made some huge plays with both spikes and blocks. Garfield had one last push, and they took the lead late up 24-20 and a powerful hit from Liberty was sent beyond the back line to give the Garfield Lady G-Men their third set of the night.

Liberty’s home winning streak was snapped as they fall to (3-3) on the season and (1-3) in conference play dropping them into a three-way tie for fifth place of the MVAC Grey with Champion and Campbell Memorial. Garfield still has not given up a set since they lost their first game of the season as they now sit a (5-1) and (4-0) in MVAC Grey play which has them in a tie for first place with Crestview. Liberty will have the weekend off as they prepare to hit the road yet again this season as on Tuesday, they will travel to LaBrae to take on the Lady Vikings (3-1). Garfield will also take the weekend off as will play at home against the Newton Falls Tigers (1-4) on Tuesday.